Girls of the White Orchid (TV 1983)

In Los Angeles, the naive and lonely burger waitress and aspirant singer Carol Heath finds an advertisement in the newspaper with a job opportunity in Tokyo. She has a meeting with the ... See full summary »

Director:

Jonathan Kaplan

Writers:

Tom Allard (story), Carole Raschella,

Stars:

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thomas Byrd, Mako

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Carol Heath
Thomas Byrd	...	Don Potter
Mako	...	Mori
Carolyn Seymour	...	Madame Mori
Richard Narita	...	Shiro
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Hatanaka
Ann Jillian	...	Marilyn
Yvonne McCord	...	Susanne
Philip Charles MacKenzie	...	Cavanaugh
Leslie Wing	...	Lisa
John Hancock	...	Sergeant Kelly
Lionel Decker	...	Travis
Eda Reiss Merin	...	Mrs. Powers
Isabell O'Connor	...	Esther (as Isabell Monk)
Keone Young	...	Akira

Storyline

In Los Angeles, the naive and lonely burger waitress and aspirant singer Carol Heath finds an advertisement in the newspaper with a job opportunity in Tokyo. She has a meeting with the agents, the American Cavanaugh and the Japanese Shiro ; she signs the contract in English and Japanese and travels to Japan to work at the White Orchid night-club. She shares a hotel room with a dancer and sooner she discovers the scheme of prostitution in the club that belongs to Yakuza. Alone, without money and her passport, she is protected by Shiro, but pressed by the managers Madame Mori and her husband Hatanaka to be receptive to client's proposals. Meanwhile her former boyfriend returns to LA and seeks her out.

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Plot Keywords:

japan | yakuza | breasts | missing person | bondage | 

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Taglines:

Stardom is her dream. And her nightmare.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 November 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Death Ride to Osaka

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hill/Mandelker Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Finding My Own Way"
Written by Brad Fiedel
Performed by Jennifer Jason Leigh

User Reviews

Take this ride to hell

Death Ride To Osaka is quite a harrowing film, where at the end of this, from our lead's perspective, we too feel drained as we've been put through this poor girl's ordeal. A vulnerable girl (Leigh) answers an ad for a hostess/ singer, and boy, is she mislead. The ads a front for a sex slavery ring. This is an all too real situation, where our innocents who show promise, whether it's in singing, acting, modelling, travel to Asian countries where it's not long before they're hooked on drugs, and are selling their bodies, where the crime syndicates profit big time. Here our lass, is a promising singer, where here in Tokyo, is not all she ends up doing. Defying the bastards who are using her for sex, she goes to the authorities to no avail. She is truly trapped. The boyfriend, a marine, who returns home, sets out after her, he too describing his girlfriend as vulnerable. Death Ride doesn't go for the sex or nudity either. There's little of either. It takes it's subject from a realistic standpoint, where we share Carol's journey and plight to escape this hell hole. And when the girls complain too much, they're sent on that death ride, where in Osaka, it's a much deeper hell. An older woman who's sent there, escapes, and is run down. A younger woman at the start, protesting to an older John about touching her, we revisit her later where she now looks older and highly drugged, forming a lazy speech pattern. Leigh fits the bill superbly amongst other good players. Although a t.v. movie. this is an eye opener for teens out there who have stars in their eyes, not to be duped by every ad they see, where this film serves as a forewarning to the dangers that are hugely present in far away countries.